


Nuts and Volts

by Clever_Girl



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, life between the games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-07
Updated: 2013-03-07
Packaged: 2017-12-04 14:20:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/711679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clever_Girl/pseuds/Clever_Girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They would never have met, were it not for the Games. Sometimes it takes horrible events for two people to find each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nuts and Volts

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a bit of an odd duck. I think it was the first Beetee/Wiress story I even began. So there are little details I stole for other stories, but mostly this belongs on its own. Please review, or leave any type of message! I really love getting feedback.

He’s not mentally present at the reaping. He’s not aware of the slightest thing that happens. Instead, he’s staring out at the crowd, looking at the face of every child and seeing the millions of ways they could die in the arena. After, when he comes to his senses, he notices the girl on stage. She’s shaking but her face is strong. He vaguely recognizes her from around the district, but his only real thought is how beautiful she is and how likely it is that she will die. He is glad that they’ve agreed to let him wait another year before he begins to mentor. Her name is Wiress, and he doesn’t think he can handle watching her be killed.

He watches the parade in the town square, and everyone gasps as the chariot comes into view. Wiress looks like a queen, stoic and calm. Her long gown and headdress would look silly on anyone else, but she holds her head up high and she looks like she belongs. Beetee doesn’t tear his eyes off her for a moment. He couldn’t tell you what her district partner was wearing.

In the interviews, Wiress barely talks. Mysterious is a good strategy, and Wiress plays it well. She could be a fighter, or she could be resigned to her fate. When Caesar asks her if she thinks she has a chance, she simply stares into a camera and gives a sly smile. It’s extremely sexy, and Beetee’s heart drops. If she actually wins, she would make a very popular companion in the capitol.

That night, he has the nightmares again. Not about the arena, the people he killed, but about the aftermath. Being used, given to capitol women as a reward, spending nights as an object. He wasn’t very popular, he was left alone by the time the next Games rolled around, but it was enough for him to see what he was worth. Enough to know that a victor’s life is no longer his own. His dreams transform into an arena, and Wiress is killed over and over. Stabbed in the bloodbath, attacked by mutts, betrayed by an ally and smothered in her sleep. The worst one, perhaps, is the one in which she survives and is used by the capitol, passed around until she kills herself in despair. He wakes up to a low keening sound and realizes it comes from his own throat.

Wiress is good in the arena. She is quick and ruthless. The arena looks like a rainforest, and there are lots of animals, both mutts and natural. Wiress shadows the career pack and picks them off one by one, making it look like an animal. They don’t suspect that the claw marks are made after death, and that the district 2 boy was really garroted by wire. When that ruse is discovered, Wiress changes tactics to pulleys and spikes. She’s surprisingly intuitive about where to place her traps, the likely spots they will camp, or split off to go to the bathroom. It only takes one wrong step before her deadly mechanisms spring. Beetee sleeps in front of the television, unwilling to miss a single cannon blast.  He watches as the district 11 girl corners Wiress and slashes deep into Wiress’ shoulder before succumbing to her own wounds. This late in the games, medicine is expensive, so Beetee makes the rounds in the district, going door to door gathering funds for one last sponsorship gift. Everyone gives what they can, knowing another district victor would benefit themselves. Beetee adds everything of his own he can get a hold of, and calls Wiress’ mentor, Vinessa. Everything they had is still not enough for bandages or salve, but they manage to send a collection of explosives and wires, cheap because they are absolutely useless in all but the most skilled hands. When Wiress opens the package, her face lights up and she gets to work. Even with the injured shoulder and blood loss, Wiress moves quickly. Finished, she lights a large fire near some rocks and waits. The fire does its job, and the two remaining tributes circle her. One has a bow with arrows, one has a club. She is close enough to the fire that she can’t be hit with a long distance weapon; you can’t aim when you can’t look directly at the target. The boy with the club shouts insults and tries to draw her out. When that fails, he charges at her, wielding his weapon. He promptly steps on the trigger, and the entire area blasts into rubble. The cameras can’t see through the debris, and Beetee holds his breath while it clears. Two cannons fire and the camera zooms in on Wiress, still bleeding profusely, but safe between two supporting rocks. She smiles the same sly smile as before, and when the trumpets sound, she begins to laugh. Beetee, comfortable and safe in his chair in District 3, laughs with her.

She doesn’t come home afterwards; Vinessa tells Beetee that she’s still in the hospital. Operations and tests supposedly to  fix battlefield trauma, but the whispered rumors are that she’s had a mental breakdown, and they refuse to put her on television until they have her under control. Beetee wonders how bad she could possibly be, that she needs to stay there for practically six months.

Beetee is invited to the Capitol for the recap and final interview. All of the district 3 victors are in the front row, and Beetee can’t stop fidgeting. He watches her face instead of the screens, dark hair and pale skin like most people in the district, but full lips and large blue eyes that are all her own. The replay ends with Wiress laughing, staring at the sky where a hovercraft will soon appear to take her home. Caesar laughs as well. “On a serious note,” Caesar adds, “You needed quite a bit of fixing up after you won, didn’t you?”

Wiress doesn’t respond, her empty eyes scanning the crowd. She wears a grey dress with a full tulle skirt, she looks pretty and delicate and lost. Beetee wishes he could hold her and protect her.

Caesar clears his throat.  “Yes, it turns out you were a bit too close to those explosives, weren’t you?” He hurries on, not waiting for her non-response. “Some hearing loss, some head trauma. Don’t worry though; you are still a world class engineer!” He turns to the crowd, knowing that he has to carry the whole show now. Wiress stares at her feet, the tiny pink bows on her ballerina slippers. “Just this morning, she fixed a faulty intercom in her suite, isn’t that something, ladies and gentlemen?” Caesar lifts his hands, and the audience cheers in response, more in support of him than of Wiress. Wiress flinches at the sound, and covers her ears. She half sings, half hums, and rocks back and forth in the chair. “Ah, I forgot. I apologize, ladies and gentlemen,” Caesar clasps Wiress’ hands, pulling them away from her face. “Loud noises are a no-no. Too much like that poor bomb that gave her the win.” He makes an exaggerated pout and the audience awws. Wiress’ head pops up. She says something, too quiet for the microphones to pick up. “What’s that, dear?” Caesar asks.

She speaks loud and clearly this time. “Do I have to kill them all, too?” Caesar pulls himself back together in record time, meeting the eyes of his director.

“No, no, darling. No more killing.” He chuckles to the audience. “Those games were so much fun; she’d love to do them again!” His attempt to save face fails as Wiress stands up.

“I’ll kill you. I am going to live. I’ll kill you.” She repeats this calmly, staring into the audience, until her mentor carries her off stage and Caesar ends the show. Beetee manages to speak with Wiress’ stylist, a harsh looking woman named Lyonie. “Was that an act?”

“No”, Lyonie spits. “But it’s not that new either. Why do you think we wouldn’t really let her talk before the games? Why do you think they kept her at the hospital so long? Not that it did any good.” She rolls her eyes. “I finally get a victor, and it turns out I’m designing for a crazy woman.” As Lyonie huffs away, Beetee tries not to smile. Only someone with a death wish would request her for a companion now. Maybe she will actually be safe.

They plan on leaving immediately for the victory tour in an attempt to make up time. Beetee asks to come along, says it will help him to get experience for next year’s mentoring. In truth, he wants to be there for her. Half of him wants to help someone who went through the same pain and misery he went through once; and the other half, the half he is somewhat ashamed of, wants the opportunity to be near her, with all the possibilities that may bring. Vinessa seems to suspect something, but agrees that it will be good practice. At the facility, the mentors and prep team are packing, and Beetee is able to find her alone in the dining room. “Hello”, he says, softly. “I’m Beetee.”

“I know.” She looks up, making eye contact. “You won four years ago. With traps. That’s how I knew it could be done.”

He forgets, sometimes, that he’s something of a celebrity in District 3. That makes him uncomfortable. _She_ makes him uncomfortable. He pushes his glasses further up his nose and tries not to fidget so much. She’s very still as she stares at him. “Will this ever stop? The nightmares, I mean? And the bad thoughts?”

“Not entirely. They will get better, though. You don’t have to kill anyone anymore”, He tries to sound soothing, but she brushes that away.

“Oh, that. I played that up for the cameras. Let them leave me alone. Poor, crazy, Wiress. I’ve gotten that all my life.”

Beetee remembers talk of a girl not right in her head, who couldn’t speak coherently to another human being, but created the most amazing machines. That must have been Wiress. He hates the thought that they were trying to ‘cure’ her for six months. “You can’t be brilliant without being a little crazy”, he says.

Wiress smiles. “You understand me.” She moves over to one of the couches and motions for him to join her. He’s apparently won her trust with one simple sentence, because they spend hours talking, about home and friends, inventions and electronics, about hopes and the future. She can handle simple thoughts, short choppy sentences, but more complex thoughts often leave her drifting off with a sentence unfinished. He takes to guessing what she wanted to say and ends up correct more often than not.

When they board the train, Wiress demands that he have the cabin next to hers. “He’s the only one I know I won’t have to kill”, she says blankly. It’s a good strategy, and she gets exactly what she wants. That’s how, in the middle of the night, he’s able to hear the screams. He’s awoken from his own dream, not a bad one, one full of soft skin and dark hair, and he opens the connecting door. She’s stopped screaming by now, awake and trembling in her huge bed.  When she sees Beetee, she opens her arms, silently asking to be held. He’s nervous, but slips beneath the covers and wraps his arms around her.

“You’re safe” he whispers into her hair.

“But are you?” she murmurs. She’s crying now, tears running down her face as her body violently trembles.

“Of course I’m safe. We’re both safe.”

“Not in my dream.” She inhales quickly, trying to stop the tears. She pulls away enough to meet his gaze. “They took you, took you away. Then they made me kill you” She presses herself back into his body and he holds her as tight as he can.

“It’s not real”, he whispers over and over, until she has fallen back asleep.

They have two nights of uninterrupted sleep. If she has nightmares, he doesn’t know about them. He dreams of the soft skin and dark hair again, large blue eyes full of love. The speech in District 11 is particularly difficult; Wiress killed both of those tributes. That night, he is woken up by Wiress slipping into his bed, and it takes him a few moments to realize that the soft skin and dark hair are real. She talks, then, about the arena and the tributes and the killing. Things she would never say in the light of day. All of the words he has to fill in at the ends of her sentences are about death. He listens to it all, and commiserates. He understands. They fall asleep and he thinks he feels soft lips brush his own, but that might have been a dream.

There are no more nighttime visits during the victory tour, but they spend most of their waking time together. She’s a bit more frazzled than usual after each speech, and the team often stops even trying to communicate with her. Vinessa just shakes her head in frustration, and the other victor, Circuit, ignores everything. Wiress can barely talk when it’s to anyone but Beetee, so he is left translating for her and making sure she eats. In the evenings, they draw up blueprints for fantastical machines, all sorts of things they will be able to make by pooling their victor resources.

They dance together, both at the capitol party and the capitol thrown District 3 party. The party in the capitol is difficult, there are few friendly and familiar faces, mostly just elaborately dressed men and women who want to discuss the bloodshed, congratulate Wiress on sheer number of kills. She holds Beetee’s hand tightly, and he squeezes it back when she needs extra support. Beetee knows there’s gossip about the two of them, the capitol loves a victor romance, so they would probably make something up even if it was possible for him to leave her side. When a particularly obnoxious man dress in lime green asks Wiress to dance, Beetee says she promised this one to him, and pulls her into his arms.

“Thanks,” she smiles. He hasn’t danced since his own victory tour, but the steps come back to him easily, especially if he doesn’t actually think about them. It’s hard to think at all when he’s holding Wiress.

“I was going to ask you to dance anyway,” he admits.

“For the record, I would have said yes.” She rests her head on his shoulder as they turn on the dance floor, and the more gossipy members of the crowd whisper about what a nice couple they make. Wiress has more dance partners in District 3, even Circuit spins her a bit, and she doesn’t need him every moment. He finds himself staying near her anyway, so he can hear her soft voice and quiet laughter.

Back in the victor village, she takes the house next to his, and immediately hires someone to build a workshop connecting the two homes. There’s surprisingly little official opposition, and it seems that the people of District 3 would do anything for their sweet, unhinged victor. “She’s not all there, poor thing”, one of the carpenters tells Beetee, “but such a genius! She’s going to do such wonderful things in her life.”

“I know.” Beetee says, unable to hide the pride he feels in her.

“Pretty, too. But I guess I don’t have to tell you that!” the carpenter teases. Beetee avoids his eyes, sure that his face is crimson. He can’t stay still, and he excuses himself from the conversation quickly, able to hear the not unkind laughter that follows him.

Wiress finds him in his kitchen, shifting things around purely to have something to do. She looks even paler than usual and there are dark circles under her eyes. Something about it makes him angry. “Haven’t you been sleeping?” He demands. “You need to take care of yourself!” She sits and crosses her arms on his table, resting her head in the little nest they create.

“Nightmares.” She says. “All the same. They take you. I can’t stand it.”

“Me? Of all the horrible things they could and in fact, probably _will,_ do to you, you think they’d take me?” She’s looking at him as though he is missing something simple, the same way she looks when he puzzles over a mechanical problem she finds easy. This makes him angrier. “They’ll use your body, Wiress! Give you to people and you can’t say no. They did it to me. Having no family makes you an even bigger target, they’ll find something to hold over you, and it sure as hell won’t be something unimportant like me.”

She lifts her head off of her arms, there are tears slipping down her cheeks that she ignores. She’s not afraid of his loud voice or anger, she feels perfectly safe with Beetee. It’s her inability to communicate that frustrates her so much. Her voice is tired and slow, forcing her scattered mind to focus, forcing each word out. “I am stronger than I look. I can handle so many things and so many tortures, but you are the one thing I need…” she’s so upset that she starts to hiccup, gulping in air and her own tears as she tries to continue her speech. “You know that without you, I’d…”

For once, he has no idea how to finish her sentence. His anger cools, he isn’t even sure why he was upset in the first place, just that nagging frustrated feeling that she wants one thing from him, and he wants another. The guilt that his wants are base and carnal in a way the delicate fragile woman in front of him shouldn’t have to deal with. “I’m right here. No one took me.” He rubs her back softly, murmuring the words until she calms down. “Maybe you can sleep some if I’m there? Let’s go up and I’ll hold you. I’ll stay right next to you.”

She nods, and it works. She’s able to sleep for a few hours. She awakens in his arms to see that he has fallen asleep as well, glasses askew on his face. She takes them off and brushes her lips against his as softly as she can. This is the moment she realizes that she’s in love with him, and that in fact, she fell in love with him weeks ago, on a couch in the training facility.

He’s the one with the nightmare, the next night, and she cuddles him awake, holding him tightly so his thrashing won’t knock them out of bed. He’s surprised, used to being the comforter, not the comforted. “Wiress”, he says, and whatever he planned to say next is gone as she kisses him. Her lips are as soft as he imagined, and he kisses back, meeting the need he didn’t realize she had. She laughs slightly in his mouth and wraps her arms around his neck. When they break apart, she laughs again, quietly, as though she is surprised by something beautiful.

“Go to sleep now, Bee” she whispers, kissing his nose. “I’ll still be here in the morning”. He does go to sleep, and he trusts her.

She is still there in the morning, already awake and humming to herself softly. Her fingers trace a pattern on his skin, and he can’t help himself, he catches her hand in his, and tenderly kisses her palm. She laughs her gentle laugh again. “You’re awake. Let’s make breakfast.”

They have a lazy morning, and he’s about to suggest going into the workshop when he realizes that she is standing very close to him, and unlike usually, he can’t read what she’s thinking in her eyes. Her head is tilted; she’s examining him, and her mouth quirks up in the mysterious sly smile. There’s no way she can know how sexy he finds it.

“Wiress”, he breathes.

“Beetee”, she responds.

The air between them feels like it has been electrically charged. He almost wants to blame Wiress, as if one of her machines was creating this tension. He moves closer to her, slowly, he doesn’t want to startle her and he wants to give her plenty of time to move away if she wants. She doesn’t.  Beetee places one hand on her waist. He’s always been something of a slight man, but she still seems small in comparison. He rather likes that. His other hand strokes her jaw line, angling her face. He’s still very slow, for her sake as well as his nervousness. He doesn’t fidget, just slowly strokes, and moves his lips onto hers.

He’s been shocked many times as he works with machines, always small ones that managed to get through his safety precautions, nothing too major. This outshines them all by a long shot. His lips begin tingling and it shoots through all of his extremities, causing him to hold her closer. She wraps one arm around his neck, holding him close, and the other is lost in his hair, keeping his kiss deep. Her body lines up with his perfectly, pressed as close as they can be. She opens her lips to his tongue and he shivers with the electricity of it. Wiress pulls away long enough to whisper “upstairs”, and he nods, unable to form words. They stumble up the stairs and race to his bedroom, barely breaking eye contact the whole time. She slips off her sweater and pulls off his before he stills her with a touch.

“Are you sure?”

She tilts her head, as if exasperated. “Of course.”

His thoughts race, trying to come up with any reason why they shouldn’t. They’re both victors, neither is safe from the capitol anyway. There’s a five year age difference that they haven’t cared about yet, and anyway, most relationships in Three are pretty uneven, age-wise. There are the nightmares and the screaming and the fact that this might only be for comfort and that’s the one that he actually can’t stand.

“It’s always been you, for me. From the moment I saw you on that stage, head held high. But why me?” He pushes his glasses up his nose, unable to stop his hands from fidgeting. He thinks this answer could kill him.

Wiress does her breathy laugh. “It’s you. It’s _always_ been you. Do you think I make a habit of climbing into bed with anyone who has a nightmare?” Beetee doesn’t move any closer to her. His eyes are sad and disbelieving. There have been enough women who only wanted a victor; there have been women who pitied him. All he wants is actual love. Wiress sits on his bed, smoothes down her camisole from where it’s ridden up. “I admired you when you were reaped,” she admits slowly. It’s taking all of her effort to get the words out, but it’s so vital to her that she say this right. “I have a hard time talking to people. People who aren’t you, at least. It made sense that I would fall for someone I had never even met. I was thirteen, deep in my first crush, and nothing was more important than the fact that the handsome boy with the glasses needed to live. I rooted for you, and cried with joy when you were crowned the victor. When I was reaped, I was determined to win. No one believed in me but I knew I could do what you did. If one odd but intelligent tribute from District 3 could win, so could two. I could survive.” She pats the blanket next to her for Beetee to sit, and he does. “That was just a teenage crush, but it took knowing you as a person to fall in love. ‘You in the arena’ was just a dream, and you can’t fall in love with a dream. You have to fall in love with someone who holds you at night and chases the nightmares away, who looks at you as if you’re precious, who laughs with you and talks with you. Of course I would fall in love with my gentle, brilliant man.” She gazes at him, and all of his resistance fades away. Her big blue eyes are absolutely shining with love, he can’t deny it.

Beetee pulls Wiress into his arms and kisses her. “I love you, I love you, I love you” he murmurs into her mouth, and the sweet kiss grows passionate.

Wiress presses her body against his, trying to get as close to him as possible. She can feel his arousal pressing into her, and it spurs her forward, kissing the crook of his neck. Beetee’s hands roam her sides, and one cups her breast, thumb finding the nipple, which makes her moan his name. They shed their clothing, and slip under the blankets of the bed, so they can continue to explore each other. They’re both passionate and loving. They have all the time in the world. When he enters her, she’s very ready, and there isn’t the pain she expected for her first time. They move against each other slowly, savoring every feeling. She arches her back off the mattress, and touches the sensitive spot that sets her off. Beetee kisses her neck as she comes, shaking and moaning, clenching him deep inside her. When she has fully enjoyed herself, he begins to move again, and she focuses on his pleasure, which comes soon after. 

Beetee and Wiress fit together perfectly, like parts of a machine. Their relationship turns romantic seamlessly; truthfully, they had already been in love long before. She sings while they do the housework. She cooks, he cleans. Every now and then he catches her staring at him and she blushes furiously. “You’re so handsome”, she says. Beetee leaves to mentor in the Games and Wiress is left alone. She wants to stay strong for him, but everything is ten times more difficult without him there. She tries to talk, but no one can understand her half sentences, so she stops bothering. No one knows what to do with her, but the moment Beetee returns, she is there. He steps right off the train into her arms. That night, she asks him to take her roughly, fierceness and passion making her _feel_ again for the first time in weeks. They each have bruises afterwards, but they are also laughing and practically glowing in their closeness.

 Beetee can tell the difference between when Wiress is vague and distracted due to her work, and when she is vague and distracted due to the carnage inside her head. Either way, he smoothes things over with whomever they were speaking to. A piece of meat in the butcher’s window can set off a flashback to the arena, her eyes staring at nothing and feet planted, refusing to move. A conversation about bread can get her brain planning several new types of ovens, her fingers starting to draw blueprints in the air. This is the behavior that made people gossip about her before the games, but now she gets a lot of leeway; they are pretty much District 3’s golden couple.

That may have been the catalyst, word got to the capitol that they were getting too popular at home. It is Wiress’ 19th birthday when a Peacekeeper knocks on the door with two letters, requesting their presence at a meeting with President Snow. _Separately_. It was really timed perfectly. Everyone else in the district gets to feel free of the Capitol on their 19 th birthday. Wiress takes the news much better than Beetee, perhaps because she hasn’t had to do this before, but they make love desperately that night, as though they could really become one and not be able to be parted.

The capitol woman who requested Beetee seems to just want to parade him around on her arm at a party. The theme is mechanics and he makes her the most popular person there for the night. Her dress is covered in cogs and gears that poke into him as they dance; he welcomes the discomfort so he can focus on something other than what Wiress is doing at this moment. Afterwards, his ‘date’ kisses him and touches him a bit, but she’s mostly drunk and tired, so she sends him away.

Wiress doesn’t speak about her assignation. All she tells Beetee is that it was sex, but she isn’t hurt, and in fact, she wants Beetee even more now that she knows how else it can be. He wonders if it is a sign of how broken she is that she isn’t more bothered. Wiress sees it differently. She views the one night as payment for the happiness they’ve had, and would be willing to do it again if it meant she could keep Beetee with her. She comforts him on the train back to District Three, tells him it’s fine if he isn’t comfortable touching her yet, and uses her mouth on him. She’s eager to please, and touches him tenderly so he is able to relax. “Do you want this?” he asks. He doesn’t want to take advantage of her; he’s insecure and needy and wants her so badly. She gives him the look that says he is missing something simple, and runs her tongue along his length. She reaches up for his hands, and tangles his fingers in her hair. Then she continues. He’s never been more turned on in his life.

He’s still overcome by the aftershocks as she crawls up the bed to lie with him. She presses kisses onto his neck and jaw line, and then settles into the blankets. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he whispers, not wanting to break the moment.

Wiress sighs with pleasure as he pulls her closer into his arms. “We’re going…”

“Home?” he suggests. She nods.

“The capitol can tell me what to do, but they don’t own me. Don’t they know I’m completely yours?” Wiress closes her eyes, ready for sleep. Beetee reaches over and turns out the light.

“I’m yours, Wire.” he whispers in the dark. She snuggles closer.

“Love you, Bee.”

They mentor together that year. No one wants to deal with Wiress if she broke down like last year, least of all Wiress herself. Beetee insists that they be paired up from now on, and the other victors shrug and arrange it. Now that there are four of them, two years off and two years on will work fine. Wiress holds up well enough when she has strategy to focus on, a problem to fix, but Beetee has to keep a protective arm around her at the reaping to stop her from trembling out of her chair, and she can barely sleep on the train, due to the nightmares. When she is with the tributes, it’s a different story. Beetee needs to be there to basically translate for her, but she has interesting, new ideas. People ask Beetee what her secret is, and he just says, “You can’t be brilliant without being a little crazy.” She has a keen sense of what persona to give the tributes. She’s knows how she’s been viewed her entire life, knows how to use it to her advantage.  This is the same principle. Under Wiress’ guidance, the male tribute makes it clear he has a trick up his sleeve, the female is ‘everyone’s best friend’ and they get the most sponsors District 3 has ever had before. It doesn’t help much though; the boy’s neck is broken by the boy from District 1 almost moments after stepping off his platform, and the girl falls into a gorge, running from a mutt with fangs the size of blades. Beetee reacts by becoming numb to the emotion, but Wiress feels it all too much. They take an immediate train back, and she stays in her cabin for the entire ride, body racked with sobbing too strong for her to talk or eat or sleep. Beetee wants to be there for her, but she waves him away, and he feels a bit of relief that he doesn’t have to see her like this when  he is completely unable to help her.

Wiress doesn’t want to be touched for weeks after the Games. She assures Beetee that it will pass soon, and he is as patient with her as he can manage. She sleeps in her own bed, in the house she has spent almost no time in since she won. He doesn’t take it personally, and he supports her. She thinks he is amazing, and wonders how she could ever deserve a man who puts up with her this well.

They still spend most waking moments together, careful not to brush hands as they reach for parts in the workshop. She is focused on mechanical engineering, him on electrical, but they run ideas past each other and manage to inspire new inventions they wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Beetee has been stumped for days about some particular wiring. He looks at the problem from every possible angle, tries different materials, his frustration growing with every failure. He hates to admit it, but he might have to start over. He takes a short break to clear his head, drink some water, and when he returns, it all seems so clear. Everything clicks, and he works at a furious pace until it is complete. “Wire!” he calls, beaming at the panel of blinking lights.

She goes to his side of the workspace, peering at it from enough of a distance that she won’t disturb any parts. “You figured…”

“It out.” He finishes. He’s on top of the world, everything feels perfect, especially the woman he loves looking at him with huge eyes and a shy smile.

“You did it.” She pulls him in his chair away from the table, towards her. “Genius.” She climbs into his lap, touching his face. It’s the first real contact they’ve had in weeks, and Beetee stays perfectly still, telling himself not to ruin it. She ducks her head to his, kissing him deep. “Need you.” She says, and he lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Wiress pulls off his shirt, and allows him to do the same to her. She’s less willing to get off his lap for the pants, but she pouts playfully as she does. When she climbs back into the chair with him, she straddles his body, and slowly sinks onto him. “My brilliant man”, she breathes. “Want you so much.” She runs her hands along his chest and shoulders, sucking gently on the pulse at his throat as she rocks her hips against his. Beetee presses the nub of nerves at the apex of her legs, clinging to her waist with his other arm. She moves her body against his hand, slowly coming undone. They orgasm only a few thrusts apart, bodies having found a passionate rhythm.

Wiress collapses on Beetee in the chair, and they hold each other in silence while their brains recollect themselves.  Wiress speaks first. “Brilliant man. Thank you for waiting. So patient when I …”

“Needed it.” He says. “You needed it and I understand. I’d wait forever for you, livewire.”

Her smile is unhindered joy. “That’s cute. Livewire.”

Beetee sometimes wonders what his life would have been like if he had never been reaped. He’d probably be married by now, child on the way. He wouldn’t have nightmares; he wouldn’t have been prostituted by President Snow. He wouldn’t have to train children to kill. But. He’d probably never had met Wiress.

Her laugh is infectious, her face is luminous. Her body is perfect, her thoughts are interesting. He wants to marry her. Every time he thinks he should bring the question up, he changes his mind. It’s dangerous, puts them at risk. It might even change their relationship, and he doesn’t want that. Still, he feels a need for proof that they belong together; he wants a silly piece of paper in a filing cabinet somewhere that says they love each other. He’s been turning this over and over in his head for months, when Wiress is called to the capitol again. When she gets the summons, her face pales. Beetee wishes he could stop it from happening, but she just takes a deep breath and packs a small bag.

“I’m leaving tomorrow, and I should be back in three days. That’s not too…”

“long.” Beetee finishes, sadly. It’s clear that he doesn’t agree. That’s far too long to be apart.

“I’m so sorry” she says, softly.

“Don’t apologize to me!” He takes her face in his hands. “I just want to take care of you! If I could take the hurt, instead of you, I would in a second!” He pulls her into his arms, into his lap. She buries her face in his chest, and he kisses her hair over and over.

“If it was my choice, I’d never leave you, you know that,” she says, into his shirt. It’s muffled, but her words hit straight to his heart. He pulls her slightly back by the shoulders. Looks her straight in the face.

“Marry me.”

“Yes.”

He expected a fight, or at least questions. Not a simple, quiet yes. “I know it won’t change anything, and we should keep it as quiet as possible, try not to make a fuss over it for the capitol. But I want a ring on your hand and I want you to be my wife.”

“I _said_ yes.” Her smile is a bit lopsided; she keeps looking down as if embarrassed. “I _want_ to marry you.”

He can’t even move for a second. All of his dreams are coming true. She leans in and kisses him sweetly. Her small hands stroke his face, his sideburns, his jaw. She crawls further into his lap, kisses his cheeks, forehead, hair. Then she stands up. “We need to celebrate.”

He raises an eyebrow. Wiress gives her sly smile, now that she knows the effect it has on him, she wields it as viciously as any weapon. She flips her dark hair over her shoulder and heads upstairs. Beetee gives himself a moment to breathe, then follows her up the stairs. He’s going to go celebrate with his fiancée.

Wiress leaves before he’s properly awake the next morning, kissing him quickly, but avoiding any tough goodbyes. It’s probably for the best, but he’s still kind of mad.

He doesn’t know what to do with himself while she’s gone. He can’t get any work done, his fingers refuse to move properly, and his brain is a hundred miles away, with Wiress. Every time he thinks of what she is being forced to do, he tries to push the thought away, tries to think about their wedding, the wedding night, calling her his wife. It doesn’t really work. He can’t even escape into sleep because he keeps having nightmares.

She returns tired and unhappy. She doesn’t want to talk, but when she removes her sweater, Beetee sees bruises up and down her arms. He wants to hold her, and she flinches slightly before leaning back into his arms. “Sorry,” she murmurs. “I’m jumpy.” Beetee kisses her temple and she falls asleep with him on the couch. She has a nightmare, and Beetee has to shake her awake because she is calling for him over and over.

“It’s alright, Wire. It’s okay”

She wakes up with panic in her eyes, but when she realizes where she is, she kisses Beetee and holds on tight. “Safe, safe” she whispers between kisses. It takes a while for her to calm down.

“Do you want to tell me about it?” he asks.

She looks so very mournful that he’s sorry for bringing it up. “I suppose I’d better.” She sits up on the couch and crosses her legs under her. She looks very small and childlike in that moment. “This guy was…he said he loved me.”

Beetee’s eyes widen. Those patrons are the most difficult. They ask for more from you than just your body.

“He was a fan of District 3 his whole life…sponsored me…pictures everywhere. Said he paid a lot of money to have me. He was…”

“Obsessed.” Beetee takes her hand, strokes his thumb over her soft skin.

“I can handle the sex, I understand sex, but he kept saying all these things…” she starts to cry. “I know he doesn’t really love me, it wasn’t love like…” she waves her hand between them, indicating their relationship. “But if he thinks he loves me, why would he force me? If he loves me then…”

“…how could he hurt you?” Beetee finishes. Wiress nods. She practically falls into his arms. “I don’t know, livewire, I don’t know.” He holds her and rubs her back. He doesn’t know how to make it clear that she’s not at fault. That she’s wonderful and loveable and that this man is sick, needs help. Wiress cries herself out quickly, a lot of the pain was from keeping it bottled up inside.

“I wasn’t good enough, Bee.”

“What do you mean?”

Wiress meets his eyes with her large sad ones. “I couldn’t give him what he wanted. He made me say I loved him, made me act as though I wanted him, and I did, I pretended it was you, said whatever he wanted. But it wasn’t enough for him.” She’s shaking a bit. “He complained….”

“To President Snow?”

She shrugs. “To someone. They threatened you. If I don’t do better next time.”

Beetee hopes against hope that there won’t be a next time. He knows there probably will be.

“I won’t let them hurt you, Beetee.” The look on her face is fierce, the same strong will and determination he saw in the arena. He believes that she would fight for him tooth and nail.

“I love you more than anything, Wiress. That means I’ll never hurt you, never force you.” This earns him a smile.

“I took eight or nine showers yesterday. I still feel dirty.” She releases his hand and stands up. The bruises stand out starkly on her pale skin. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“Oh.” Beetee walks up the stairs with her. “I’ll stay if you need me, sure.” He grabs towels and pajamas. When he enters the bathroom, the water is running and Wiress is naked. “Oh.”

“I don’t want to feel him on me anymore, I want to feel you.” She kisses him. His lips are soft and gentle, she had tried to imagine this while in the capitol, but the real thing was so much better. “Come on, fiancé.” They touch each other in the shower, it’s not even truly sexual, more just reassurance that this is real, they are real, they belong to each other. The water turns cold, and they wrap themselves in the fluffy towels and head to bed. That’s where it becomes sexual, and Beetee is the gentlest he’s ever been, whispering his love to her, touching her face, and kissing her everywhere. She keeps her eyes open for every second, so she knows it’s him, her Beetee, who loves her. She gasps when they join together, he worries that he’s hurt her, but she shakes her head.

“I just forgot how perfect this is.” She holds onto his shoulders, throws her head back. “You remind me that sex is beautiful.” Beetee agrees, their bodies are an expression of love, not the perverted tool of the capitol. They succumb to waves of pleasure, and drift off to sleep still intertwined. “I won’t let them take this away from us”, she sleepily promises. “Won’t let them convince me sex is bad. Not with you.”

Wiress focuses entirely on her work. Beetee isn’t much better most of the time, and they end up having to set alarms so they will take a break and eat. Beetee is pretty good at knowing his limits and getting sleep, but Wiress isn’t. She’ll work until she literally collapses. Beetee has to practically force her out of the workshop at night. Sometimes, she just brings a piece of her machine upstairs with her, and works on it at the little table in the bedroom. “Wiress, come to bed,” he pleads.

“I will, I just wanted to connect this and now…” She trails off as something snaps into place. She’s caught her lower lip between her teeth in concentration, and Beetee can’t take his eyes off her.

“Wire. Livewire. Wiress.” He calls, hoping that she will escape her working haze and actually come to bed. She doesn’t even turn around, so he sighs and gets out of bed. “Livewire,” he says, leaning on the back of her chair, “it is 3 AM. You need to come to bed. This can wait until morning.”

“It’s important!” she cries out. Then she catches the hurt look on Beetee’s face, and realizes how unreasonable she’s been. “But not more important than you. Sorry.” She tilts her head backwards so he can lean over the chair into an upside down kiss. “Never more important than you.” She joins him in bed, and cuddles her apology.

They get married quickly and quietly, Vinessa and Circuit the only two witnesses. Beetee gets exactly what he wants; a piece of paper filed away somewhere, a ring on her finger. “My wife,” he whispers, making her giggle. When they reach home, Beetee lifts her easily into his arms, some old tradition he read somewhere. He carries her to the bedroom, both of them laughing the entire way. It’s very easy for them to call their caresses ‘making love’, each of them completely overwhelmed with emotion for the other. They hold each other the whole night, occasionally murmuring “husband” or “wife”. The Capitol doesn’t know what they’ve created. Instead of two lives ruined by the Games, Beetee and Wiress have forged one unit, a partnership that makes them stronger, and one day, will help overthrow the entire government.


End file.
